


Day 250

by Josh_the_Bard



Series: A Year in Kirkwall [250]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26350555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh_the_Bard/pseuds/Josh_the_Bard
Series: A Year in Kirkwall [250]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1589257
Kudos: 1





	Day 250

The auction would be starting in a few hours. There was no time left to change plans or do more setup. Paherial called all his allies together ready to finalize the plan for the evening’s events. Worthy was present with the forgeries. Niklas and two other grifters he had found were there dressed in guard uniforms. Felras had brought the Harrowmont shield from his contact in Darktown. She was still unaware about the true purpose of her work.

“Unfortunately, Varric is now aware that we are planning to hit the auction tonight,” he began. Worthy had the sense to look suitably contrite. If not for the dwarf’s advice to speak with the Coterie, Varric would still be in the dark. 

“He had increased his security and had vetted his elven servants more thoroughly than before. I was unable to get work in the auction house, so we need another way in. This is where Worthy will have to step up once again. Varric has no reason to suspect your intentions so you will donate a collection of runes to the auction as a ‘publicity stunt.’ Felras and the forgeries will be hidden in a secret compartment of the shipments and Niklas’s men and I will pose as the porters delivering the boxes.”

Paherial didn’t like leaving so much to Felras but he was the only one light and nimble enough to hide in the boxes without drawing notice.

“Once you’re inside,” Paherial continued, “you will wait until you’re left alone and slip out and make your way up to the second floor and let me in through one of the windows. I’ll deactivate the traps and we can make the switch and head back to the loading docks. We’ll have to manage carrying the goods out ourselves. If we’re lucky, we will make it to the docks before anyone notices anything amiss, if not Niklas and his men can swoop in dressed as guards and ‘arrest’ us.”

“Sounds good,” Niklas replied. “The guards have been recruiting so many new recruits these past months that no one will question some new faces wandering around, even if they get close.”

“Any other questions, comments, or concerns?” Paherial asked. No one spoke up so he dismissed his conspirators until the next evening. Paherial could sense the anxiety in his ward. He was asking a lot of the boy, he had never taken such an active role in an operation like this before, but Paherial was confident he was up to it.

“I wouldn't have asked you to do something I didn’t think you were up to,” he told the boy. “All you really need to do is stay hidden for an hour or so. You were always good at that.”

When they had first met Paherial he hadn't even been on a job, he was just visiting the local alianage. Felras had been picking pockets in the market and accidentally robbed a city official who called down seemingly every guard in the city to hunt for the child. Paherial had been sitting outside a tavern called the Swan Rider and drinking tea when the young elf had sprinted past like he had demons chasing him. The tavern’s sign featured a scene from a local fable about a boy who befriended a swan that he rode on magical adventures. Felras had scaled the building and hung in the sign, matching himself up perfectly with the wooden boy on the sign. He had hung there unmoving for hours while the guards tore the alianage apart looking for him.

Paherial had taken the boy with him when he left the city, anyone who could pull off a stunt that brazen and get away with it had the making of a Lord of Fortune. They had taken a coin from the purse Felras had stolen and sewn it into his tunic, the first of many, if the boy kept up with his training.

After that the boy should have no trouble avoiding detection in a room full of cover where no one was looking for him.


End file.
